


Always With Me

by ownedbyacat



Series: Rise as One [1]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 07:33:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4296135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ownedbyacat/pseuds/ownedbyacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're both uncomfortable about the changes ahead, but they've learned over the years to be each other's strengths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always With Me

**Author's Note:**

> Set between the final Tokyo Stage and SMTown Tokyo. Just me being emoshinki...

When Changmin hadn't answered his phone, Yunho simply assumed that he had gone drinking with Kyuhyun and the guys after their concert and had accepted BoA's invitation to have dinner after hers. He'd not expected a bedraggled Changmin to sit on his doorstep when he finally made it home after midnight.

"Min? Anything wrong? You didn't answer your phone."

"I wanted to see you." Changmin mumbled, curled in on himself as if embarrassed.

"If you'd told me that, I would have come home right away."

Changmin shook his head. "Everybody wants a piece of you. I can't be selfish."

Yunho stopped short. "Who's filled your head with rubbish, Min?" he asked almost angrily. "You have first call on my time no matter what." He held his hand out, glad when Changmin unfolded himself from his huddle and allowed Yunho to pull him to his feet. 

"I was hoping you were having fun with Kyu and the guys."

"I did at first," Changmin admitted when they'd settled on the sofa, tangled together like they usually were. "Then it just felt… lonely? No, not that. Incomplete. Like something was missing. And I had to come find it."

Yunho smiled at the soft words. It wasn't the kind of thing Changmin would have ever admitted to in the past. Even if it was all about to end, it was comforting to know how far they'd come. How comfortable they'd become with each other. He slipped an arm around Changmin's shoulders and slid his fingers into Changmin's hair, ruffling it affectionately.

"Remember how you told me that you'd always be there when I had need of you? That I didn't even have to call? That all I had to do was think your name and you'd be there?"

A pink wash painted Changmin's high cheekbones. "I was drunk."

"Yes. Yes, you were. And yet… You _are_ always there when I need you. You always have been. How can I do any less for you? We're a team, remember? We belong together."

Changmin was silent for a long time and Yunho didn't interrupt his thoughts. Changmin hated change and they were facing perhaps the biggest change in their lives. Perhaps… because Yunho was determined to make sure they returned to what they had, what they loved. If they focused on their comeback, the time in between would be nothing but an interruption.

"I hate this," Min finally burst out when he couldn't keep his thoughts to himself any longer. "We've spent all this time together and now I'll not see you again."

"You're filming, I'm filming. It's nothing we've not done before…"

"You know what I mean." 

"I do know," Yunho soothed. "What happened to _focus on what you can change_? This is one of the things we have to do, like photo shoots in questionable costumes, like MCs in foreign languages, like answering the same inane questions over and over, or turning up for TV shows when nobody is awake to watch them." He pulled Changmin closer, smiling when the younger man didn't fight, when he melted against Yunho and let himself be held. "We've had to do all of those things and we got through them. This is just one more."

"You really believe that, right? You don't just say that to make me feel better."

"Hey! We wouldn't be the best at what we do if we were in the habit of dealing in soft soap. Now what is this really about, Min? Tell me?"

Another long silence. Then finally a whisper. "SMTown in Tokyo. Standing on that stage... alone."

***

Changmin's phone beeped, and he reached for it in the darkness, not bothering to check who was calling. He was exhausted, physically and mentally, but he'd lain in the darkness for hours unable to let go, unable to let himself drift off to sleep. As usual when he felt so completely out of sorts, the late call wasn't unexpected. "Hey."

"Hey yourself. How are you?"

"Tired." _Heartsick. Scared. Lonely._ Changmin didn't say it. Yunho sounded bright and cheerful and he had no intention to taint the good mood with his melancholy. "Did you have a good visit?"

Changmin didn't want to talk. He wanted to hear Yunho's voice. For as long as he still had the chance. Yunho seemed to get that. He talked about the Universiade, the musical, changes in his hometown, visiting with friends and family - all the things they'd not done together. He described tiny details that most other people would have missed: someone's expression, a type of flower he'd spotted in someone's garden that he'd not seen before, the friendly greeting he'd gotten from a store owner who used to scare the socks off him as a teen because he was so grumpy, backstage antics after the musical, a new dish his mother had made and how she was packing a bag of food for Yunho to take back.

"They missed you, Min. Everyone was asking after you."

Changmin soaked it all up. Every word, every smile, every chuckle. Soaked it up and stored it away, deep inside where he kept his most precious memories. 

When Changmin got scared he grew silent. He took comfort from the sounds around him, let them smother the tendrils of fear in his mind. Yunho's voice, telling him stories, was the best antidote to loneliness he'd ever discovered. And he never felt guilty for needing it. Because when Yunho got scared he needed to talk. Needed to remind himself of everything good that was happening in his life, needed to bask in the attention of someone listening to him.

They worked perfectly that way. 

"I've got to do it again tomorrow," Changmin finally said, voice small.

"You'll do us proud," Yunho said promptly. "I know you will. Go swim in that red ocean. Go out there and have enough fun for the two of us. Make them all look forward to seeing us back up on that stage. And know I'm waiting for you when you come back to Seoul."

"I passed the police exam." Changmin hadn't meant to say that, hadn't meant to remind them both of the massive change that was looming ahead of them. But the words had slipped out and, of course, Yunho laughed.

"Of course, you did."

"There's so little time left."

"Only on the outside, Min. Inside, in my heart and mind, you're always with me."

On a normal day, Changmin would have replied with something snarky, mocking even. Had done so countless times before. In the face of over two years of separation, he couldn't find the strength for snark. He didn't even search for a shield to hide behind. He simply drew a breath and let it out.

"You're always with me, too."


End file.
